we spent Easter weekend up at my parent’s house this year, and the weather was absolutely beautiful the whole weekend. flowers were starting to poke up from the cold ground and even some were starting to bloom.

everywhere you looked, there was signs of new life. there was a fresh batch of baby kittens (strangely enough the mother cat had chosen to have your young kittens in the chicken coop!)

speaking of chickens, my cousin dropped off a few new baby chickens for my parents (they were down to only 3 laying hens).

all around their property, the boys found places to explore – the waterfall ponds, the big pond, the swamps, and the woods – looking for any little creature they could find… and more importantly, catch!

frogs, tadpoles, snakes, turtles… all were at risk of being snatched up with dirty fingers or a dipping net – and spending the rest of the weekend in one of several critter buckets.

I took several of the boys out for [multiple] rides on the pond in the canoe – they were able to catch several painted turtles that had been basking in the warm sun.

walking in the grass near the pond edge, I even found a baby snapping turtle – I assume making his way down to the pond, only recently hatched from an egg.

the boys weren’t the only ones that wanted to ride in the canoe – Arwen did a great job with me, especially for her first time out on the water!

I did spend a large portion of Saturday working in my dad’s workshop – I had brought along all the cedar boards for building my cupola that will go on top of the barn. I made significant progress – it is partially assembled, with the final assembly to take place up on the barn roof (I need it to be light enough to hand carry up the roof!).

as usual, there was a plethora of delicious food over the course of the weekend. I helped my dad dig up a huge bucket of parsnips – left in the ground over the winter. look at that monster!

and for one meal, my dad made pastrami (from a Jewish deli cookbook I bought him) – it was delicious!

technically, today is the 1st day of spring. but at least in Michigan, it certainly doesn’t feel like it! a little while back we had a day or two or three of temperatures creeping up into the 50’s and 60’s, but ever since we’ve been back in a cold snap, with constant freezing temperatures, and random bits of snow falling as well.

but it should warm up soon, and sailing won’t be too far behind.

(full disclosure – this video for the song is pretty weird… but I kind of like the song, and it IS the first day of spring).

My friend…Don’t just sit there and ruminate…With your navel to contemplate…It’s a beautiful day outside…Time’s passing you by…Come on out…Don’t just sit there catatonic…I’m feeling supersonic…A warm wind is sweeping by…The sun’s full in the sky…And there’s no way of knowing,No way to know,Know how long it’ll last,No way of knowing,No way to know,Know how long it’ll last…

happy groundhog day! this has certainly been a strange winter in Michigan – one of the warmer winters in my recent memory, and a very small amount of total snowfall so far. it’s been above 50 degrees F several times in January, and this week will have several days in the low 40’s. there have been a couple days of bright sunshine, too, which has been great. we did have one snowfall of maybe 2 or 3 inches about 2 weeks ago – I took the boys sledding for a little bit that weekend. it’s been pretty much the only chance we’ve really had all winter!

I posted this clip a couple years back, but I really like it – Bill Murray gives the weather report from the movie Groundhog Day.